Oilers Won’t Regret Big Offer Sheet Decision

EDMONTON — Stan Bowman passed his first test.

The new General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers has just passed his first test with flying colors. The test? What to do about two simultaneous offer sheets to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.

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Bowman took the entire seven day period allotted in the CBA to reach his decision. Time will tell that he made the right call.

It’s true that both Holloway and Broberg show great potential. Ultimately, they would not be worth the money that they would be making had the Oilers matched each deal. Here’s why:

Philip Broberg

The constant yo-yoing of Broberg between the minors and the NHL hurt the player’s development. Hopefully, this management group has learned their lesson on that front.

That being said, Broberg’s on ice results during the regular season were less than spectacular. He had the worst overall dangerous fenwick for percentage (DFF%) on the Oilers’ blueline (49.1%).

On the flipside, he also had the worst PDO of all the Oilers defenders (972). For those unfamiliar, PDO is the combined statistic of the team’s shooting percentage and it’s save percentage while that player is on the ice. It’s essentially a measurement of luck. For PDO, 1000 is considered average. If the number is considerably higher, the player is lucky. If it tips more the other direction, the player is unlucky.

Another unlucky statistic for the young blueliner was his plus-minus. Broberg was the only defenseman with a negative plus-minus (-3).

Was all of that worth nearly $4.6-million? Not for this season. Could he have grown into a role where he was worth that amount? Certainly, as that is what the St. Louis Blues are banking on.

Dylan Holloway

Holloway didn’t have the most success on the scoresheet this past season. He registered nine points in 38 games while skating 11:22 a night.

According to MoneyPuck, Holloway performed nearly on pace for his expected goals. He finished the year with 6.3 expected goals for (xGF), and he scored six goals in 2023-24.

In DFF%, he ranked seventh among Oilers forwards. The six forwards ahead of him were (in order) Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod.

The Oilers are not losing game-changing talent. With the right opportunity and development the two young players should do exceptionally well with the Blues.

In a Stanley Cup Contending season there is too much at stake. The Oilers couldn’t rely on these young players to live up to what they would have been paying them had they matched.

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